Heading up the west coast of the South Island was a pretty low key, relaxing few days

Stopped off at Punakaiki to check out the pancake rocks

which were created over many years through a natural process called stylobedding. Interestingly (or not), these stylobedded rocks lie at about the same latitude and just on the opposite side of the Tasman Sea as the tessellated pavement. And within a few days, this blog should be the first and only Google search result for tessellated stylobedded. Anyone excited about that besides me?

Below the pancake rocks thereâ€™s an enormous cauldron where the sea water rushes in and the pressure rises

until naturally created blow holes erupt

Pretty cool to see.

I had heard that West Coasters, separated from the rest of New Zealand by the Southern Alps, tend to march to a different beat

Nice driveway for me to decide to turn around in.

Up to the northwest by the second day, I headed inland along the Buller Gorge

and before the day was over I had arrived in Nelson on the north coast. Still a few beach goers after 5 p.m.

On the other side of the bay is Abel Tasman National Park, and I decided to head over there the next morning.

It was looking pretty good on the water taxi ride in

Split Apple Rock, made entirely of granite and cut almost perfectly in half, supposedly by a glacier

Once on land there is no letdown in the scenery

The hiking trails take you pretty high up in some places

Definitely didnâ€™t let go of that tree, it was almost straight down to the sea behind me

Pretty amazing to wonder through dense woods like these

and emerge to a view like this

Abel Tasman is an absolute beauty and was the perfect place to say goodbye to the South Island after twelve glorious days.

Today I drove onto an Interislander car ferry, and after three hours at sea crossing the Cook Strait, I find myself on New Zealandâ€™s North Island. Itâ€™s got a tough act to follow.